RIGHT NOW
2017
Flipping the calendar finds a lot of
us pretty much
flipped out ourselves!
Seismic social, political and spiritual shifts are
disrupting, even destroying,
the way things are,
or we thought they were,
or at least what we thought they should be.
That goes for the price of gas to the threat of
trade, if not nuclear, war.
flipped out ourselves!
Seismic social, political and spiritual shifts are
disrupting, even destroying,
the way things are,
or we thought they were,
or at least what we thought they should be.
That goes for the price of gas to the threat of
trade, if not nuclear, war.
The toxin of fear pollutes our spirits.
It destabilizes self and
society.
Can’t we settle down into the safety and security
we had back in the 90’s, or was it the 70’s,
surely not the 60’s, perhaps the 50’s?
Can’t we settle down into the safety and security
we had back in the 90’s, or was it the 70’s,
surely not the 60’s, perhaps the 50’s?
We can’t and it wasn’t!
So, can we stabilize at all out here
on the street of Right Now?
Is there anything that can support spirituality for street life 2017
Is there anything that can support spirituality for street life 2017
in our exile?
Well, being centered in the “right
now “
would be a big help.
We can’t stabilize in a past or a
future.
They don’t exist “right now.”
So, it really is “now or nothing.”
That means recognizing and dealing
with what’s coming down “right now.”
That’s where we are and how it is,
a mix of terrible and terrific.
The ancient Israelites knew the mix
and spelled it out in
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There
is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens
and a season for every activity under the heavens
a time to be born and a
time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a
time to heal,
a time to tear down and
a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Most of us wouldn’t want it or
wouldn’t write it like that,
but like that it is!
The big question is
are we here and now
in the middle of the muddle
as it is?
As Walter Cronkite used to say
at the end of the CBS Evening News:
“And that’s the way it was…”
O.K., you never heard of Walter
Cronkite,
but do hear what he
and the writer of Ecclesiastes said
about how
NOW HAPPENS,
the agony and the ecstasy,
the pain and pleasure of it,
The shrinks tell us
the hardest thing to deal with is
Ambiguity.
It floods us with fear.
As we awake to the right now of2017
there is ambiguity and fear all over
the place:
How stable is my job (if I have one)
and my
savings (if I have any)?
What will the new president’s
personality, character and modus operandi
mean for American life and world
order?
Will North Carolina have a bathroom
for
everybody?
Will Baptist, Methodist and Catholics
ever get around to celebrating and
supporting
marriage and family life for all
gender people?
What will happen to the 40% of millennials
(18-35)
still living with their parents?
Will we stay stuck in strident
black and white or can we move and
merge
to full color transmission of
national life?
Will terrorists drive a truck through
the Fourth of July Parade or
blow up our church next Christmas
Eve?
Will all the ill get care?
Can we get civil, or do we bully on?
Its like running a marathon
in the smog of ambiquity and fear.
It destabilizes and stalls.
So, the choice is to go into
depression -
financial, personal, spiritual,
social -
or be like the heroes of history and
deal with the shifting sands of
fearful ambiguity
knowing that underneath all that is
Rock Solid Reality.
It is our base of operations no
matter
the fearful ambiguity
cluttering the surface of things.
Paul was so right.
Referencing that Rock Solid Reality
and identifying
Ultimate Goodness
( long for g-o-d)
He said:
“In him we live and move and have our
being.”
Acts 17: 28
We are not adrift and baseless.
We are rooted in Being,
anchored in Reality,
alive in an Energy Field
whose center is everywhere
and whose circumference is nowhere.
( Bonaventure )
Talk about finding yourself!
And find ourselves we must.
That’s essential spiritual growth.
As contemplatives,
we recognize, accept, exalt
in who we are and how we are.
We are life in Life.
In that Life we do, as Paul says,
come alive,
are energized into movement
of every sort,
and we “be’ in Being Itself.
That’s indestructible, and unmovable,
Rock Solid Reality,
no matter the fearsome ambiquity on
the surface of
our everyday life out here
on the street of Right Now.
So based, we are of a piece
and draw from
The Source.
Aware, connected and open
we are enspirited.
Spirituality for street life 2017:
GO DEEP, OR
GO UNDER.
Not only do
we go deep, or go under,
we go
together
or
we go
broken and breaking
all by
ourselves.
Being part
of a for real community
is
essential
for a
spirituality up for life
out here on
Right Now
Street
2017.
We just
will not make it trying to live as
crowed
strangers.
By nature
we are
social
individuals.
That’s real
as in
Reality.
Yet, we
have pushed
the
individualism button
so hard and
so often that we end up in an
isolation
ward,
in self-imposed
solitary
confinement
and it is
maddening.
A small
community in which
to be and
do
life
together
is a sine
qua non
for
spiritual viability
in today’s
conflicted, ambiguous
and frightening
environment.
To be real
means
TO REALLY
BE TOGETHER.
That’s a
community in which
we are
invited to be
who we are
and how we are
and we
invite others likewise.
We get
together frequently.
We regularly
share meals.
We do Soul
Share and Care.
We help
each other out.
We recreate
together.
We
generously work together
for the
good of for those beyond our community.
We share
Word and Sacrament.
Aware,
in the
Right Now,
connected
to the Source
based on
the bedrock Reality ,
life in
community
-a 2017
Street Spirituality-
So, we flip
the calendar to 2017 and
find
ourselves pretty well flipped as well.
Will
somebody somewhere push the nuclear button
and “fast
backward” what’s left of us to
primitive
cave dwellers?
Will our
racial rift tear us to sharp shreds,
or will we
weave a tapestry of delightful diversity?
Will we get
real about our planet,
or will we
continue to sow seeds of destruction
for our
children’s inheritance?
The new
administration is set to change a whole lot.
Will that
whole lot mean “Hole” or “Whole”?
Will our
economy
Fly or
crash,
ShopRite or
breadline?
Can we
outgrow
our
adolescent babble, fluff and bullying
and mature
ourselves and our media
to the
point of being really “social”?
Well, it
depends on our base.
Jesus tells
a lot of good stories
( Irish
genes, no doubt! ).
What a
message in this medium.
He shared a
great story one’s base.
A man built
a house on sand.
The wind
and rains came and
down went
that habitation.
Another man
built a house on rock.
The wind
and rains came and
that
habitation stayed stable and solid.
So will we
if
we live in
the now,
are based
on the Rock of Reality,
share life
in community.
build a
habitation that is
Rock Solid
no matter
the social, political spiritual shifts
and the
consequent
ambiguity
and fear
that fog
the immediacy of things.
Hey, thanks
for the company.
As you go
through all this please know that
this little
old man
prays for
you all each day
(not on my
knees anymore, but so surely from my heart).
Holding each
and everyone of you in
God’s Dear
Love,
John Frank